This invention relates to an electronic musical instrument with an automatic rhythm playing unit.
An electronic musical instrument with an automatic rhythm playing function usually has a rhythm start/stop switch, an intro-fill-in switch and a synchro start switch, these switches serving as rhythm control switches. The synchro start switch is used when starting a normal rhythm in synchronism with the operation of an accompaniment key.
When the intro-fill-in switch is turned on before the start of performance, the intro-fill-in is produced in response to the operation of an accompaniment key and continued for the first bar or two bars before being switched over to the normal rhythm. When the intro-fill-in switch is turned on after the rhythm start, the fill-in is produced for the immediately succeeding bar or two bars before being switched over to the normal rhythm.
The length of the intro usually varies with music played. However, the intro-fill-in is produced only for one bar or two bars as noted above. Therefore, there are many cases when it is impossible to provide an intro-fill-in that is fitted to the music to be played.
Further, in order to produce a fill-in rhythm as a play pattern, i.e., for a somewhat long period of time, the fill-in switch has to be repeatedly turned on for every bar or every two bars. In this case, one hand, for example, left hand has to be exclusively used for operating the fill-in switch, so that only the remaining hand can be used for operating accompaniment keys, thus sometimes giving rise to trouble in the performance of the accompaniment.